Chapter 44: Ghost Of The Past
Shirou looked at his opponent and was shocked at the sight of the gleaming golden armour. The hairstyle, the blond hair, the opulent golden theme, and that arrogant stance prove that the opponent in front of him is an archer from the 4th holy grail war.
The servant of the Tohshaka family and Rin`s father. He remembered this servant making a contract with the master killing disciple kirei kotomine. The thoughts of the mad mad priest and the servant being present in this war made this a lot more volatile.
Shirou remembered all the servants in the war and found that he hadn't identified Assasin and Lancer. The heroic spirit looked exactly like he looked in the last war hence he couldn't have changed class so how was he here? Pulling shirou out of thought the golden king said in an emotionless voice
"I guess I'll kill you."
The heroic spirit began swinging a sword like a raging torrent, most of the attacks were just blurry lines in Shirou's field of view. Shirou was dumbfounded when he boddy successfully parried most of the attack.
No, he thought and focused on the blade in his hands, he was struck speechless when he found the blade in his hand was the source of the experience of swordsmanship and use of the blade that was being forced into his mind.
This is the reason for the feeling of intense pain in his head, the experience of using a blade was being forcefully fed into his mind from this sword hence he was able to exchange strikes with a heroic spirit.
Slowly he was unable to even keep up with the opposing blade as even with the technique and knowledge his body was failing him, he was too tired to even keep up with the intense class of swords.
The golden swords suddenly stopped and the face of the owner was contorted in disgust as he said
"You are a Lowlife. You are worse than unsightly."
Glaring at him in anger the spirits retreated a bit and said
"You filthy imitator. If you like that fake sword so much then I shalll show you the real one."
He opened a golden portal in the middle of the space and pulled out a plain-looking sword.
"What –" shirou exclaimed as the name of the opposing sword popped up inside his head as well as information about it. The golden pile of arrogance said
"It is the model of the sword whose copy you are holding. But its strength as a Noble Phantasm is incomparable."
"What you have, 'the sword in the stone', originated from the legend of 'the sword of supremacy in the tree' from Northern Europe"
"This is the original model, the foundation of the sacred right to select the king."
This thought popped up in Shirou's mind as he looked at the sword and this caused his headache to intensify. The spirit holding the sword declared with arrogance
"Children can't defeat their parents. An imitation that deteriorates every time it is renewed can't match the original originator of the myth."
(A/N: Gill here is pulling BS because you know he loves to see people succeed as well as see people fail and their spirits breaking. I think this arrogant version of him will not admit his weakness hence he is twisting his words to impact the spirit of shirou. His np the gate of Babylon owns the prototypes of every human-made treasure.
So all things of divine origin are not there for example all divine constructs, then things like armour of karna. Then he hadn't mastered them which means he realy was not skilled with them and would swing them around like a stick plus it lacks the legend empowerment.
If Cu used gae bolg and Gil used that to counter him then Gilgamesh would be clapped hard because he lacks the legend empowerment of the spear in Cu's hands. Hence Gill mostly fills in the gap in quality with quantity.)
True to the word the sword swing was blocked by the sword in his hands but the blade in Shirou`s hand released what he could perceive as a mournful cry and shattered. What shocked shirou was not the shattering of the blade but rather when the blade shattered it dissolved into mana, this showed that the blade was a projection.
Shirou`s astonishment was greeted by the searing pain. shirou`s body was cut from shoulder down to the waist by the sword whose name he learned was Merodach. Shirou slid across the park ground for some distance leaving pieces of flesh from the opened wound that were torn apart by friction.
"Shirou...….Shirou, Shirou…!!!!" panicked cries of sabre ranged in his ear.
This made him realise that he had slid towards her injured body. He lightly said
"Oh. Saber, you're pretty near me." as if the near-fatal wounds were minor scratches instead.
"Do not move…! Please, please do not move, Shirou…!" sabre pleaded to him, looking at the ever-valiant knight talking like that Shirou felt a smell indescribable sense of contentment but that was pushed away once he studied his body and found that his left shoulder was missing from his body.
He felt his body looked like a ginkgo leaf and when he felt that his body would try to move up it simply lay there as if it had given up.
"Hahahaha! I see you are still clinging to life. I thought you would be scattered but you are rather tough. But then again it's the only merits of lowlives like you to cling to life."
The gloating voice of the king of heroes drifted in his fading consciousness as he moved towards the injured woman. He said as if declaring
"But that is all. A lion doesn't suit a counterfeit like you. so I will take that woman."
Hearing that shirou felt something in his body fade away and in his dying mind the thought that echoed was
Shirou lost consciousness in these strange thoughts and the swirl of light was swallowed by the swirl of light and pulled into the void.
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Shirou woke up to the sharp stabbing sensation of over 15 swords protruding from his arms but his focus was on the vision he witnessed. Especially the swords now that the pain from before had disappeared he was able to focus on the sword and the revelation of the noble phantasm being a projection.
Shirou suddenly dashed to Kiritsugu`s room and violently opened the door making his father jump up and take a defensive stance. Looking at his son`s condition kiritsugu was about to get ready to go to the clinic but shirou insisted on talking at that instance.
Hence the father took out a pair of tweezers and removed the blades from the boy`s wounds with the help of a scalpel. Later closing the wounds cleanly he wrapped the mystic code around them and activated the formal craft ritual inscribed on the floor.
Shirou described the vision and kiritsugu was visibly tensed when the mention of the king of heroes was made. He remembered the might of of the heroic spirit and its nature making it a volatile threat.
Later when he learnt that he most likely is the 8th servant he went into deep thought and after the tale ended he said
"From the 1st point, I think the archer of the previous war is still around in fuyuki. I think he used the mud that overflowed from the grail after I destroyed it to wish for continued existence."
"And shirou we need more examples for the state of the blade you are talking about. If it is Caliburn the sword of selection then yes it was the sword that selected King Arthur as the king and sabre neither had that noble phantasm nor she could give her weapon away."
"My bet is on it somehow being related to your origin and elements as both being the same is nearly unheard of making the pros unknown."
"But whatever it was it shows that you can develop a unique brand of magecraft that is personalised for you."
"I have no idea how you can have information about weapons appear directly inside your head. Plus you also have to search for the identity of that particular heroic spirit if you want to counter him."
"I am more concerned about the state of sabre, how can she be so weak? In the previous war was at a heavy disadvantage against Archer but here she was most likely beaten instantly as you didn't see any marks of battle."
Then the father and son kept analysing the vision details but Shirou`s mind was being pulled towards the sword called Caliburn and the wail he heard from it.
(A/N: shirou finally saw his goal of tracing magecraft and I have finally found ways to strengthen his projection magecraft without any asspull. I have to have him meet some fellow craftsmen and have an exchange.
I am still on the fence about how to counter Gill, as the cannon option would not work here simply because Gill would look down on shirou but would most likely not play around with him like in the cannon.
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THANKS FOR READING:)